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18 Email Template Design Ideas To Inspire Your Email Campaign

Featuring Digital Marketing Illustration Pack by ZP Design

Creative Market Last updated: April 22, 2024 · 7 min read

Creating an email marketing campaign from scratch is a luxury not all of us can afford. Luckily, using email templates can save you a lot of time and effort. It can also help ensure brand consistency, make personalization easier, increase your email response rates, and ultimately improve customer satisfaction. Whatever your goal for your email campaign is and if you’re looking for a creative solution that doubles as a foolproof marketing strategy, these email template ideas and tips are the answer to your prayers.

Tips for Choosing an Email Template Design

A plain text email can only get you so far. If you really want to successfully drive customers to your website, store or landing page, then you have to choose ready-made templates with an attractive email design. Here are some tips to help you out.

Mind your color choices.

Using bright and energizing colors is a surefire way to grab your readers’ attention. However, make sure that your color palette is consistent with your brand identity to make your brand recognizable.

Choose colors that complement your logo and match your brand design. It is also recommended that your call to action buttons have the same color as your logo to be consistent and draw focus on what you want your readers to do.

If you’re creating a seasonal email, then you might also want to consider using a color scheme that goes with the season. This template bundle is a great example of integrating winter and Christmas colors and design elements into your holiday email design.

Prioritize visuals.

Whether your recipients will stick around to view the whole email greatly depends on how engaging your visuals are. From picking the best fonts to strategically arranging product images to create visual patterns or establish a unique aesthetic, a creative use of design elements is exactly what will sell your content to your readers.

And no matter what, always use high-quality images that have at least two times the resolution required on standard mobile devices so your content will be displayed properly on different screen sizes. Here is a perfect example of an eye-catching template that will surely attract your email clients.

Use space effectively.

When it comes to email design, you are working with only a limited amount of space; so the more efficiently you use it, the better you are as a designer.

It’s all about finding a nice balance between your text, visuals, and white space. The basic rule that every email marketer should follow is that an email design should have a 40-60 proportion of text and images in order not to go to spam.

Keep the design simple and clean by pairing images with short descriptions. Avoid using too much text and divide your content into sections to promote readability and visual organization. Check out these email templates showing how to apply these best practices.

When creating lists, use icons as they draw attention better than text and add value to your content without increasing the size of the message, like what ThemesCode did in this template.

Utilize interactive features.

There are many interactive elements that you can make the most of in your email to engage readers better. For example, you can use countdown timers to indicate urgency for a flash sale and other limited-time offers.

Image Source: Pinterest

Or, you can try a scratch card which is a great way to motivate users to check out and avail themselves of discounts.

Image Source: Pinterest

Animation also grabs more attention than static images but keep it to only one animation per email to avoid overcrowding your design. Busy emails can be overwhelming and hard to scan or comprehend, so be cautious in using these features. Keep your email visually simple as much as possible to improve comprehension and user experience.

Choose a mobile-friendly template.

Designing and developing optimized content and apps for mobile before other devices have become a major trend simply due to the fact that people nowadays tend to do everything on their mobile phones. Checking email inboxes, for example, is done on mobile by 75% of Gmail users. That said, use a responsive email template at all times so you can accommodate mobile users and enhance user experience. Here are some email templates that are mobile responsive.

Email Marketing Templates You Can Use

Generate leads, drive traffic to your website, increase brand awareness, or boost your sales using these different types of email templates.

Regularly sending email newsletters can help you inform subscribers about new content and keep your website traffic at an all-time high. What’s great about an email newsletter is that it is more personal, targeted, and consistent, but it is only effective if it is well-designed and perfectly executed.

Keep it focused by choosing relevant content for your target audience and deciding on only one topic and format for your design. People usually don’t read all the text in your content, but they do read your titles and section headings so they are very critical in your newsletter design. This template perfectly illustrates how you can make your headings more attention-grabbing.

Meanwhile, your header should be visually appealing and make your subscribers feel as if they are opening a gift. In this template, you can dedicate a huge space for an attractive header.

Promotional Email Templates

Promotional emails are promotional messages sent to customers or potential clients to increase awareness about your products and services. Using special coupons and discounts to boost sales and providing access to exclusive content and events to improve customer retention and loyalty are also part of promotional email campaigns.

Promotional emails establish positive relationships, and since relationships are built on trust, that’s what the central theme of your promotional email should be. Prove that you are a trustworthy brand by being friendly yet professional in your copywriting and keeping your email design consistent and on-brand.

Highlight great offers and product benefits by using promotional email templates with an appealing yet simple design.

Email Blast Templates

An email blast or email broadcast usually consists of a single email intended to reach a huge number of customers or prospects all at once. It could be a promotion for a new product or feature or a big sale announcement.

Email blasts can be a powerful strategy but they require careful planning and implementation so you don’t end up being spammy. Keep it simple and make it personalized yet flexible enough for a large audience.

These creative email templates show the kind of email blast messages that people won’t mind receiving in their email inbox.

Here are some more email newsletter examples and design ideas to help you convey the visual story you want to tell and achieve the look you’re going for.

A modern design can help your brand stay up to date. For example, this modern podcast email newsletter template can be used for various types of content such as a fashion or photography catalog.

For a unique email design, try this email newsletter template that combines strong typography with images creatively cropped into different shapes.

If you want a stylish and sophisticated look for an email newsletter for your fancy restaurant, this set with a distinct, elegant design is the perfect marketing tool.

Simplicity is always the best way to go. Simple or minimalist designs are easier to understand and can portray your message more clearly. Here is a minimalist newsletter template that you can easily customize for your brand.

With these tried-and-tested practices and recommendations, your next campaign is guaranteed to be a huge success. Sign up here for more exclusive content to help with your business and marketing needs!